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Let us know a little about yourself and your lawn care and landscaping business. Let us know who you are, where you are from, and what equipment you started with and how far you have come along in the business.

Thread: ISP and Realtor goes Holiday Decor

I'm not a lawn guy. I'm an Internet Service Provider and Realtor, and one of my customers had a Holiday Decor & Lighting business I bought from him. We do mostly Commercial Properties, although this last year I opened it up to Residential clients as well. In New Mexico we have the Luminarias that are a big hit. We do all types of Decor, both inside and outside, clients such as shopping centers, malls, banks and casinos. My goal is to grow by 1 crew per year for 5 years. My website is http://www.LuminariasLimited.com which was a last minute thing to have something for last year (2005), but I'm working on something new that will go with the new promotional stuff as we begin in a couple of months. I look forward hearing from you all, sharing ideas, etc. Two things I know I'm interested in are:
1. does anyone make their own lawn figures? Would you be willing to share/sell your templates of reduplicating them? Or build to sale? Although the majority of my clients are Commercial, we do Residential and this is one area I'd like to increase business this coming year.
2. Another thing I buy tons of are clear strings of lights (100-300 lights per string)....does anyone have a Vendor that sales this stuff cheap? (The little mini lights that you wrap with)

Every customer has their own needs, and we've found it easiest to provide a one stop service for everything. We own, maintain, remove all lights. We then store them until the next year.

I'm always looking for other vendors with better pricing on quanity. I buy 1000's of strings of new lights every year. I'm also interested in finding someone that would sell their patterns, or build then sell handmade lawn figurines for Residential use for the most part (although I do know some Commercial Properties would use them too).